Gladstone Baseball Season Ends In Regional Final

TRAVERSE CITY---The Gladstone High School baseball team had its season come to an end on Saturday, falling to the Charlevoix Rayders, 12-1, in six innings, in the regional championship game at Traverse City Central High School. The Braves finish their season with a 22-14 record, with the bulk of their roster set to return next year.

Isaac Ketchum got the start on the mound for the Braves, and he was able to wiggle out of trouble in each of the first two innings. He gave up two hits in the first inning, but got a ground ball to strand those two baserunners.

Then in the second inning, Ketchum walked two batters and a bunt moved both runners into scoring position. But Ketchum got Troy Nickel to fly out to strand two more.

The Braves had their best chance to take control of the game in the bottom of the second inning. Ketchum led off with a single, then as light rain fell on Traverse City, Johnny Soderman and Trevor Thorbahn both walked to load the bases with nobody out.

Davin Mattonen worked the count to 2-2 but struck out, and then Austin Pepin hit into a 4-6-3 double play to end the inning, missing out on a golden opportunity.

Charlevoix, meanwhile, did not squander its next scoring chance. In the top of the third inning, the Rayders had two on with one out when Ryan Pearl squeezed home the first run of the game. Ketchum still had a chance to get out of the inning, but Max Reynolds ripped a shot past a diving Soderman in center field with the bases loaded, scoring three runs, making it a 4-0 game.

That sequence essentially told the tale of the game, as Charlevloix added three more runs in the fourth inning and five more runs in the sixth inning to put the game away.

Gladstone scored its only run in the bottom of the sixth inning on a home run to left field by Soderman, a fitting way to end his career in a Gladstone Braves uniform.

Besides that, the Braves only managed two other base hits in the game.

Charlevoix (29-10-1) was led by Pearl, with four runs batted in, and Aiden Spiegl, with three hits. Bryce Johnson pitched 5 2/3 innings to earn the win.

Charlevoix later shut out Pinconning, 5-0, in the state quarterfinal game, to punch the Rayders' ticket to the state finals at Michigan State University.